The Texas Tech Red Raiders find themselves in a familiar situation as they enter Big 12 conference play this weekend. They must find a way to play at a high level without starting quarterback Alan Bowman.
On the season Bowman has completed 65% of his passes for 1,020 yards (fourth-best in the FBS) and six touchdowns with three interceptions. He is also leading the nation in completions per game with an average of 33.7.
However, for the second consecutive season the Red Raiders will be without Bowman for several weeks due to injury. In Tech’s 28-14 loss at Arizona Bowman suffered a shoulder injury that would ultimately result in him missing several weeks, including this weekend’s matchup with Oklahoma.
The solution, according to head coach Matt Wells, is for Tech to play two quarterbacks.
“With the quarterback situation for us, you’re going to see both guys,” Wells said on Monday. “Not sure how that’s going to play out. We’ll see how the week goes in practice and we’ll have a plan to find exactly for those guys by the end of the week before we get on the bus to head to the airport.”
Junior quarterback Jett Duffey and senior Jackson Tyner are the two options Wells has at his disposal but he isn’t tipping his hand in terms of who will get the start, or the most playing time, against a seemingly improved Oklahoma defense.
“We have, yeah,” Wells responded when asked if one quarterback was getting more reps than the other in practice. “I’m not going to reveal it because as I said we’re going to define the plan as the week goes. We’ll have it defined at the end of the week. But you’re going to see both of them the in the game. So you’ll see both in practice. But you all won’t see it because I’m going to close practice all week.”
Both quarterbacks have experience with Duffy completing 67.5% of his passes for 1,221 yards and 8 touchdowns to 6 interceptions in 2018. Most of that came in relief of Bowman when is suffered an collapsed lung.
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